NVIDIA and Falcon Northwest have partnered together to build a one-of-a-kind gaming PC. Nvidia is now auctioning this amazing system to raise funds for the Philip Scholz Memorial Foundation, honoring an NVIDIA brother who was tragically killed earlier this year when he heroically removed an individual from train tracks and was hit. The Foundation bearing Phil’s name provides scholarships to needs-based youth and promotes outdoor physical activities involving his favorite pastime, baseball. This amazing PC uses all the latest technology to deliver absolutely raging performance in a cool, quiet platform. It starts with the award-winning GeForce GTX Titan Black – the world’s fastest single GPU. And it includes Intel’s latest Core i7 CPU, the 4770K, running on an ASUS z87 Maximus motherboard loaded with 16GB of GSKILL DDR3 memory. The storage system is based on two 1TB M50 SSDs from Crucial. And it’s all wrapped up in the most impressive chassis available today – the Tiki — custom designed in NVIDIA green, with a laser cutout window so everyone can see the beast that lives within. This entire system is fully warranted by Falcon Northwest. To learn more about Phil and the way he changed those around him, see this story from San Jose Mercury News. The direct auction link is here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=151292393844 A video has also been posted here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ug3QFKKyV0

As a stray, I used to wander around finding whatever hardware scraps I could find, but now that PureOC has given me a home, I get to feast on some of the best news and reviews on the web! Turned out that I had a pretty decent nose and while I’m pretty new to suburban life, I’m learning all kinds of new tricks. I’m the Hardware Hound! I’ll do my best to bring you great hardware news and opinions, as well as a smile on your face along the way. So sit back, enjoy the show, and get to know me a little better, but keep your eyes peeled because I’ll be highlighting some of my favorite recent hardware releases soon! The Hardware Hound Intro

As we all know, digital audio has become the de facto standard on most of our audio devices. Unfortunately, there are still select motherboards out there which don’t offer a digital output, so we’re stuck using an analog connection and laptops that only offer an analog audio jack. Diamond Media has a solution. Their USB Xtreme Sound 24bit 7.1 Channel Digital Audio Adapter looks to make digital audio available for everyone. It’s a pocket size device that is capable of receiving an audio signal through 3.5mm stereo jacks or any USB 2.0 or optical input with multiple output ports. It can then convert the audio into a digital signal.
We are going to put it through its paces and see if it lives up to its promises.